Support The Blogger Protection Act of 2008

I’m not usually a big advocacy guy, but this is an important piece of legislation and I’m writing about it today in hopes that it gets wide bi-partisan support across the blogosphere.

Recently, the FEC created rules that protect bloggers from campaign finance laws, but they don’t constitute any binding law that extends that protection indefinitely. The following bill being put forth today by Representative Jeb Hensarling (R – TX) would protect all forms of “uncompensated Internet activity by individuals from treatment as a contribution or expenditure” under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

Basically, you can say whatever you want for or against a candidate and be free from regulations. The only exception is if you’re explicitly being paid by a campaign to blog. And if that was the case and you weren’t disclosing it, well, the FEC would be the least of your worries. Goodbye blogging career.

I tried to upload the pdf of the proposed legislation to SlideShare, but something is wrong. If I get it to work, I’ll embed it here. However, both myself and Alan Stewart Carl have signed on in support of the bill. I urge you to read, link, start talking about and contact your representative about it today. It’s a step we have to take in order to ensure our unique form of speech is protected indefinitely.